Buck up, Nancies!
Democrats and Progressives are proving -- as if the nation needed more proof -- that they've got no stomach for a political mudfight.
"Rush Limbaugh was mean to Michael J. Fox! Mean!"
"That Tennessee ad is racist! Racist!"
"Denny Hastert is lying about Nancy Pelosi! Lying!"
"They're attacking Al Franken! Franken!"
Are we supposed to be surprised? Shocked? OUTRAGED!? C'mon. These are the same people who used push polling to make out John McCain's adopted South Asian daughter -- rescued from Mother Theresa's orphanage! -- to be his mulatta love child. This is Karl Rove & Co. fighting desperately to cling to control of Congress. Did you really expect these Machiavellian smearmongers to hew to the moral high road?
And just look at how the whine-o-sphere plays into Rove's hands. We've now all seen that allegedly racist ad attacking Harold Ford Jr. in Tennessee. And while we were all waiting for the slutty white Bunny to solicit the African American Congressman, we were exposed to funny jabs about Ford's questionable dealings with porn producers, and his proclivity to raise taxes. Also unfair attacks? Sure, mostly. But effective.
Whatever the original ad buy, the controversy has amplified the reach of the attack exponentially.
I'm not suggesting that Democrats should stay silent. I'm suggesting that they quit their squawking and fight back. And fight dirty. This is politics not a tea party.
The esteemed Dan Savage has it just right:
Harold Ford should film a response to the GOP's racist attack ad. He should look into the camera and say this:
The Republicans have accused me of being a heterosexual man. They're implying that I have an interest in women. It would seem that today's Republican Party is more comfortable with elected officials--male elected officials--who take an interest in teenage boys. Mark Foley is acceptable to Ken Mehlman's GOP. Heterosexual men, it seems, are not.
Cross posted from Rolling Stone's National Affairs Daily